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Local election offices prepare for statewide recount

Secretary of state expected to announce recount at end of week

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Florida is on its way to several recounts in major races as well as some local races.

The Florida secretary of state is set to make the statewide announcement for a recount once all the counties submit their unofficial results by noon Saturday. 

At the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office, employees spent the day in a planning session preparing for the inevitable recount, which is expected to start Sunday. 

"We're done," Bill Cowles, Orange County supervisor of elections, said. "We are ready to give our first set of unofficials to the state and sit back and wait for the notification."

In addition to the governor's race, a Senate seat, and the commissioner of agriculture, the county will also need to determine the winner of the Orange County Commission District 4 seat, which currently is decided by less than 200 votes. 

Cowles said the office plans on recounting those ballots first, before the statewide races. 

"As we see it right now, we would do the county commission race first because it's 41 precincts," he said.  

Seminole County Supervisor of Election Mike Ertel said his team plans to do all the recounts at the same time. 

That office was also quiet Friday, with many employees updating voters' addresses. 

Seminole County will also have a local recount in the race for the County Commission District 2 seat. 

If a first recount using machines is still too close, within 0.25 of a percentage point, or there are discrepancies, then it'll go to a manual recount. 

"All those ballots that had an overvote, meaning someone voted for more than one candidate, or those ballots with an under vote, meaning somebody voted for none of the candidates, we take a look at those that the machine read those ballots correctly," Ertel said. 
 


About the Author
Clay LePard headshot

It has been an absolute pleasure for Clay LePard living and working in Orlando since he joined News 6 in July 2017. Previously, Clay worked at WNEP TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he brought viewers along to witness everything from unprecedented access to the Tobyhanna Army Depot to an interview with convicted double-murderer Hugo Selenski.

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